DeMint not happy with Capito, also wary of NRSC

11/26/12 7:19 PM EST

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) panned the entrance of Rep. Shelley Moore Capito into the West Virginia Senate race as he questioned whether the National Republican Senatorial Committee should take a larger role in Senate GOP primaries in 2014.

"She would not be the conservatives' pick there," DeMint told POLITICO. "We'll just have to see who else runs."

Capito announced Monday she'd run against Sen. Jay Rockefeller in 2014, giving the NRSC a formidable opponent to put up against the five-term Democrat.

But conservatives like the Club for Growth and DeMint immediately threw cold water on the choice. And as a number of Senate Republicans have pushed for the NRSC to take a larger role in Senate primaries to avoid putting up weak candidates in the 2014 elections, some conservatives have pushed back.

In the interview, DeMint said he'd doesn't think it's "a good thing" for the NRSC to take a heavier hand in primaries unless "there's a good consensus around a candidate" in certain cases.

"I believe that if the party is going to offer a contrast to the Democrats, we have to have good conservative candidates," DeMint said. "I certainly don't want to see the past come back, where this philosophy that a moderate has the best chance to win. That hasn't proved out."